The big surprise of the first day of the Cup Finals came in the game between Lukoil Academic and Rilski Sportist. In a very dramatic game the players from Samokov won 82-80 and will play Balkan tomorrow.
Rilski took the lead in the beginning and kept it until the final minutes. The Samokov team was in front 25-19 after the first quarter and 42-33 after the first half. The lead of Rilski became even bigger after the break. With 2 minutes to go in the third quarter the score was 59-44, a big advantage for Rilski. The quarter finished 63-50 and before the last ten minutes all the odds were on Rilski's side. Lukoil though didn't give up and cut the deficit to a single point with 3 minutes to play, not without the help of the referees too. Then Lukoil Academic took the lead but with 35 seconds to play Rilski tied the score at 80 points. Branko Mirkovic missed a three-pointer and then fouled Jane Petrovski who scored two free throws that gave Rilski the win after Lukoil missed its next shot.
The starting five of Rilski Sportist all scored in double figures. Simeon Naydenov was the top scorer with 19 points, Bogdan Boev scored 15 and Rob Preston 14.
For Lukoil 19 points and 11 rebounds had Pero Antic, 16 points in 14 minutes before fouling out had Todor Stoykov and Willie Deane scored 14 points. FULL STATS FROM LUKOIL ACADEMIC - RILSKI SPORTIST
